


dances forgotten in millennia

by silkboos (enbnyx)



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Tales From The SMP - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Anyways, Character Death, Hurt No Comfort, Memory Loss, Multi, Sad Ending, Time Loop, Time Travel, based on tales from the smp, even tho they arent really mentioned much, no beta we die like c!wilbur, pls enjoy, speedran this after the new ep bcs was sad abt mason and john john
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29456295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbnyx/pseuds/silkboos
Summary: There's a man running toward him, bandana 'round his head and arms raised in a wave.To Karl, he's simply another stranger in an unfamiliar time.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 11
Kudos: 104





	dances forgotten in millennia

**Author's Note:**

> speedran this after the latest episode of tales from the smp, hope you enjoy :]

Karl can’t remember the first time he stayed somewhere for any extended time. It’s become routine to expect a castle of pure white at the end of every journey, a library filled to the brim with ink-stained pages that remain the only memory of names left forgotten with age.

Now, in yet another time, there’s a man who runs towards him, a - _new friend? old friend? enemy? lover? -_ stranger, grinning bright with a bandana wrapped ‘round his head and an arm raised in the air. 

The timeline is as unfamiliar as it isn’t, overlapping scenes of countries falling to ash and an infectious red growing deep within dry soil. He doesn’t remember, never does, and so smiles back in an expectation of a new family left behind.

“Hello!” He greets, arm raising to a returning wave. The man doesn’t stop, barrels on into his arms and wraps him into an embrace. He lets go just as quick, hands waving as he begins to speak.

“Karl! It’s been so long, man, where’ve you been?” 

The name is familiar, one that’s been tied to him since beyond, a sign etched into the walls of a castle.

_(“Remember who you are, for no one else will.”)_

“Pardon me, but what’s your name?” His voice is soft, expectant, a staple of Karl from last but not a Karl from before. He needs time, a requirement to fill as his persona changes yet again.

The man backs away, brow furrowed. For a moment, he looks almost angry, and there’s a flash of memory.

_(“You killed him!”_

_There’s a cry torn from his lips, shaking hands trying to patch up wounds that’ll never heal. The boy-too-young is dead, thrust into a fight he shouldn’t have fought and pushed into a role he should’ve never filled._

_“Just as you killed Jack.”_

_The sheriff holds his bow, arrow aimed at the bandit’s face._

_“Why shouldn’t we kill you now?” A hysterical laugh from a grieving man._

_“Is that it? You kill my friend just as I kill yours, but I’m in the wrong for being on a different side? Fight me then, put me down like the pig you are.”_

_“I’ll fight you.”_

_There’s a count, gun cool in his hand, and the place gains an eerie quiet. He doesn’t hesitate, yet his opponent does._

_And_ oh, _the man turns and Karl shoots, and there’s nothing but emptiness in his chest.)_

“What? Karl, did you hit your head or something? It’s me, Sapnap,” The man- _Sapnap_ , speaks. “Y’know, your fiancé? Hello?” 

Fiancé?

_(“Divorced.”_

_He blinks, head turning between host and guest as the conversation grows darker. He tries not to think about the familiarity of the other man.)_

He’s never been in a relationship before appearing, he doesn’t think. Every friend has been made after appearance, just as every friend has forgotten. He has no impact, makes no change. He simply exists, a courtesy bestowed as guise for a curse. Of course, his memory is spotty, but not to the extent that he’d forget even that. He would’ve realised before, right?

“Sap, Nap?” He sounds, trying the name on his tongue. It’s strange, different to the Jacks and James’ and others. The man looks impossibly sad, heartbroken, and Karl _doesn’t understand_ because this Sapnap can’t know him, he’s never been here and never truly formed these relationships. 

He’s never been to the same time twice.

_(They sit in a poor excuse for a circle, one standing and walking around. The man beside him smells of alcohol, but nevertheless, Karl feels something blossom in his chest as their hands intertwine._

_They find him dead hours later, blood pooling through the closet door.)_

“You- you don’t remember? What about Quackity, Alex, c’mon, please Karl.”

“Alex?” The name’s easier to pronounce than the longer, familiar but not, and he watches distress pass.

“Our other fiancé? Karl, you messaged him two days ago saying you’d be back soon!”

His head is ringing, two days and a decade, words flashing through his head.

( _Search the castle._

_Time moves different._

_Don’t forget._

_Look under the tree._

_In-Between._

**_Don’t stray from the path_** _.)_

He doesn’t understand, the words scramble, red eggs and ender eyes, hands on his hips moving him through a delicate dance, going through the motions for another millennia.

Had he strayed? He didn't, right? There was a path, lined with glitter and gold and shining throughout his time spent, he walked along and watched an apparition glitch, picked up books along the way to the gardens and the swings.

He can’t remember, his conscious feels split and pulled, and his eyes close and body falls to the distraught husband, but he doesn’t have the capacity to notice, can’t see past the confliction in his mind.

There’s an adventure above the sea, an adventure below, mysteries and murders and orphaned children left for dead, and infatuations that die as quick as the recipient, and a sword that impales his chest from a descendant of now and again from a descendant of then, the same servant.

The castle is green, the castle shines purple, the castle is an unstained white and the swings a pale brown. There’s books strewn about, what used to be a library, wrecked by frantic searches of unstable minds.

There’s a book made in faded ink, untouched for centuries, detailing adventures in a new age when he didn’t understand his journeys, when everything was new and the instructions fresh.

He remembers, then, memories of beaches and mansions and murders, of countries and explosions and marriage, of an infection that tries to take what he loves and poisons it’s enemies, and for a moment Karl feels regret in his unwillingness to find his cure.

The moment ends, the memories are gone, _he_ is gone, swept into a dark void unescapable, paradoxical. It swirls. He hears of a country, and is denied as a citizen. He watches it rise, watches power change, watches it fall.

Elsewhere, there is the ever-ticking sound of a heart monitor, and the sobbing of two broken men.


End file.
